Meredith Oliver

Blog

The Fan Factor Bottom Line

November 9, 2015

I did my job. I ended my seminar exactly on time. I had a cab waiting to take me to the airport. I flew through security because I had already invested the time and money to be TSA Pre-Check approved. I sat waiting at my gate and even moved to the correct gate when the gate changed. My goal was to go to Vegas and back in 24 hours. Tough but possible. I could have stayed an extra night in Vegas, shopped, caught a show and had a fabulous dinner. But when you are the working mom of a seven year old boy, you move heaven and earth to come and go as quickly as possible.

Sadly despite all of my efforts Southwest Airlines let me down. I did my job. Southwest Airlines did not do its job. Somehow a passenger ended up on the plane who wasn’t supposed to be there and even more concerning they didn’t know who it was. So after a length manual check of every single passenger my connection was blown and I ended up overnight in Chicago hundreds of miles from where I was supposed to be.

No amount of marketing can make up for poor performance. In the end you have to be great at your job. You have to deliver a world class customer experience.

What is one thing you could do today to deliver a world-class experience to your customers? One small thing. It doesn’t have to be a big grand gesture. It may simply be doing your job correctly and competently so that the correct passengers get on the correct plane.

The Fan Factor is all about focusing on the fans and making the experience about them and not you. Step #1 – Do your job.